Ryan's Minipacman 15 in 1 Cabinet *New Photo With Ryan*

[markrvp]

THIS PROJECT IS NOW FINISHED.

[markrvp]

I like how 1up made a play on word's with his marquee on the original PacMamea cabinet, so here was what I changed:

[jcroach]

Very nice.  You get my vote for Dad of the year!

[MinerAl]

I considered doing a Pac/Ms. Pac TV game combo for my mini-cab.  How do you intend to switch between the two?  Will you have both attached to the same controls at the same time or will that also be switched?

Will you have the 2 buttons necessary for the Ms. Pac-TV game?  Will you have the turning joystick for Pole Position?

Looks like a good start!  Good luck.

Al

[markrvp]

I considered doing a Pac/Ms. Pac TV game combo for my mini-cab.

[MinerAl]

The way I was thinking of doing it was with an old 9-pin serial or 15 pin monitor A/B switch.

Wire the joystick and buttons to the common, Ms. Pac to the A and Pac to the B... all with easy to wire Dsub connectors.  Put the A/B knob on the coin door or front of the CP or even on the CP itself.

[markrvp]

Great suggestion!  That's what I'll do. 

Then I'll leave the potentiometer steering wheel connected straight to the MsPac pcb.

[SteveJ34]

.......
I have shrunk them down to fit Ryan's 20" TV. 
.....

"Mom, where'd my TV go to?"

[markrvp]

.......
I have shrunk them down to fit Ryan's 20" TV.

[MinerAl]

...I have shrunk them down to fit Ryan's 20" TV...

Wait... why did you have to shrink anything on a cabinet that came with a 19" monitor in it to fit a 20" TV?

[markrvp]

There was a bezel around the 19" monitor.  The inside cabinet dimensions of the original Pacman plans from Jakobud were 23".

[markrvp]

Very nice.

[markrvp]

Pictured below is how I plan to interface both Jaks units to one set of controls.  Thank you to MinerAl for the suggestion.

This box has 4 inputs, so I can also hack in Ryan's Spongebob handheld and his Spiderman handheld (these were a 2-pack from Sam's Club).

I got this on ebay complete with 4 cables for $11.95 plus shipping. 

I like having 15 pins on the connector.  Each handheld box will need these wires:

Joystick Up
Joystick Down
Joystick Right
Joystick Left
Ground
Button 1
Button 2 (and possibly 1 more ground)
Video +
Video Ground
Audio +
Audio Ground

That's 11 wires needed (and possibly 1 more ground).

I will need to hack these to a 6 volt power supply.  I had planned on using one of the Wall Wart DC converters.  A couple of questions here:

- Will the Wall Wart work okay (this has been some discussion in the Main Forum)?
- Can I hook all 4 handhelds in parallel to 1 Wall Wart DC converter?
- Should I hook the Wall Wart DC converter into the 4 port switch so 1 power source is switched to the active handheld only?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[MinerAl]

I would do separate power supplies and just have them all on all the time.  I just wouldn't enjoy sending power through the switchbox. not that it's a lot of power, but still...

Take lots of pictures!  The Disney TV game is a blast, better than spiderman maybe

[markrvp]

I cut the sides out today, and BOY IS THIS THING CUTE!!!.  I'll try and post pics on Monday. 

I hope to have the cab construction complete and ready for sideart and wiring by Monday.

I've ordered orange T-molding from www.t-molding.com.  Hopefully it will be here next week.  That will be the last thing to go on.

The VGA switchbox has shipped and should be here Wednesday or Thursday, so expect wiring to take place next Sunday.

[Joystick Jerk]

Change "Daddy" to "Dad" so his friends don't lay an ass-whomping on him when he gets a bit older and they come over to play.

[teetu]

Change "Daddy" to "Dad" so his friends don't lay an ass-whomping on him when he gets a bit older and they come over to play.

I was thinking the same thing.   It will have more longevity with "dad"

[markrvp]

Thanks for the suggestion guys.  In a few years I'll just change out the marquee. 

Ryan knows me as "Daddy" right now and I like the symmetry of the word as it matches MIDWAY better in length.

[markrvp]

Here's where I am to this point.  Sides are cut and curves have been sanded.  I've got support pieces glued & screwed.  All the other pieces are cut and ready for assembly.

From the images below, you can make out the unmistakeable curves of a Pacman cabinet.

[MinerAl]

Lookin good!

[markrvp]

After 5 hours or stripping, soldering, and screwing (wires, not myself) last night I successfully hacked three handhelds:  Pacman, MsPacman, & Spongebob.  All are hooked into the VGA switchbox which feeds 1 control panel and the TV.

THIS WORKS AWESOME!!!  Thanks MinerAl for the switchbox suggestion.  I will make pics later and post.

[MinerAl]

Sweet.  Did you wind up using 3 power supplies or wiring the +6v through the switchbox pins?

Pictures!

What are you going to do with the 4th port on the switch?  20-in-1?   It would be nice to have Mr and Ms Pacmen available.  Actually, you could hack as many of the TV-games as you want to and have any 4 of them hooked to the cabinet at one time.   If you could find an appropriately sized radio shack (or whatever brand) project box, you could have little modules with VGA cords hanging out of them

How many buttons did you go with?  Which Joystick?  Will you be doing the Pole Position pot as a separate control?

So many questions...  sorry.  I'm enthused about your project for some reason

[markrvp]

I'll have pictures tonight or tomorrow.  I'm using 3 different power supplies.  I have RCA switchable DC converters.  I tested the 6v setting and it was sending out 9 volts.  No wonder so many people have fried these things.  The 4.5v setting is the one I have to use.  With a load it runs around 6.5 volts.

There are three handhelds hacked in now.  I am going to hack in a 4th - Spiderman (which came as a two-pack with the Spongebob from Sam's Club).

The test panel I hooked up had an Ultimarc E-stick and three buttons.  All of these handhelds have a button 1.  All of them have a Menu button.  I have these wired as Button 1 & Button 2.  The Ms Pacman has a button 2 which is wired on the control panel & switchbox as BUTTON 2.  The Spiderman handheld has 2 buttons on the box PLUS 1 button on the handle.  I don't know if these are three different buttons or if the thumb button is wired to one of the other buttons as a redundancy.  I'll find out tonight probably.

I will use the MsPacman stick with its own potentiometer for Pole Position.  There is a carriage for this inside the box that you can unscrew and then screw into the control panel from underneath.  I had to use my hacksaw to cut the balltop off the joystick after cutting through the outside casing top to get it loose.  The shaft is 1/4" so any spinner knob from SlikStik or Oscar Controls will work.  I think I'll order one from Oscar as SlikStik seems to be having delivery problems.

More later.  You don't know how fun it was to play these things with real arcade controls last night!!!

[AlanS17]

Maybe now Ms Pacman will actually be responsive! I have one of those things and the 4-way was worthless. I ended up just playing Galaga on it. Can't screw up left and right.

[markrvp]

Maybe now Ms Pacman will actually be responsive! I have one of those things and the 4-way was worthless. I ended up just playing Galaga on it. Can't screw up left and right.

Yeah, the joystick on that thing is worthless.  My dad bought one for my kids for Christmas.  I started looking on the internet for how to make it better (and to find my old Pacman patterns) which is what led to my whole BYOAC experience.

I put a lighter spring in the E-stick and IT WORKED GREAT!!!  I'll probably put a Sanwa in the cabinet as it has the SHINY RED BALLTOP which all Pacman related cabinets should have.  It is also 4/8 way selectable.  You really need the 8-way for Xevious, but 4-way for everything else (except Bosconian maybe).

[AlanS17]

Have you seen the T Stick Plus from the ultimarc website? It comes with a bat top, but has a replaceable red balltop handle. It's 4/8 way selectable from above the control panel. You just pull up, rotate, and drop it back in the engage what mode you want to be playing in.

I've bought one, but it hasn't arrived yet. I could tell you my experiences with it when I get it. I'd like to use them in my upcoming classic cocktail cabinet. I heard it might have a long throw, though. We'll just have to see. I like the switching mechanism, though. Sounds really simple.

[teetu]

I'll probably put a Sanwa in the cabinet as it has the SHINY RED BALLTOP which all Pacman related cabinets should have.  It is also 4/8 way selectable.  You really need the 8-way for Xevious, but 4-way for everything else (except Bosconian maybe).

I agree 100%-  I'm actually gonna put one in my mini galaga tonight or tomorrow after i get done painting it.  The only thing I'm thinking about is whether i route the CP and put it on top or mount it underneath.  The sanwa that ultimarc sells has a much longer shaft than the typical sanwas, so mounting it underneath my 1/2" CP is more like the original sticks- but I'm so used to having a longer shaft (i'm not as old as most people here).

[markrvp]

I'll probably put a Sanwa in the cabinet as it has the SHINY RED BALLTOP which all Pacman related cabinets should have.

[NiN^_^NiN]

Glad it's working for u

i got a 5 in 1 taito space invaders game it looks like a arcade panelw itht he balltop and 2 buttons.

Would be very simple to hack and i have a 5" B&W tv but i don't wanna do that cause it has other games with it.

If it just played space invaders it be great but having a choice of games like qix on a b&w monitor is bad i think. 

[markrvp]

Here are pictures I promised.

[markrvp]

Here is the diagram for the Terminal Block I used on each Handheld.

[markrvp]

Here is my test panel.

[Tiger-Heli]

(and to find my old Pacman patterns) which is what led to my whole BYOAC experience.

Best PacMan guide and patterns I have found are here:  http://www.mameworld.net/pacman/patterns.html

Note that the start of the mid-fruit pattern has an error and should be replaced with the attachment, and that they don't work with the Jakks (I think) but work great in MAME (or course).

[MameMe]

These are very nice pictures, thanks for sharing.

If you connect all the joysticks to the harness, then connect the harness essentially to a monitor, where does the sound come out from?

[MinerAl]

He has the audio spliced into the harness as well, so the sound is coming out of the TV.  He could also send the audio to some PC speakers or whatever.  The audio, video, and controls are all sent into the switch box, so whichever position the switch is set to is the one sending those signals to and from his TV and controls.

[markrvp]

These are very nice pictures, thanks for sharing.

If you connect all the joysticks to the harness, then connect the harness essentially to a monitor, where does the sound come out from?

Thank you for the positive feedback and interest in the project.

I'm not going to a VGA monitor.  The VGA cables are just a convenient way to wire everything up. They have 15 separate conductors (14 + Shield) and readily available switchboxes ($11.95 on ebay including the cables). 

Each handheld (joystick) has its own harness.  I'm calling these the INPUT HARNESSES.   There is another harness that goes to the control panel and the TV.  This is the OUTPUT HARNESS.

What MinerAl said is right, video and audio are both going through the VGA cable using 4 separate wires.

[markrvp]

I had a couple of hours today to go ahead and put the cabinet together.

[markrvp]

Here is my Epson 7600 printer printing out the sideart on adhesive Vinyl.

[MinerAl]

Very nicely done!

Carpentry looks top notch.  I wish i had a large medium printer   Side art looks perfect!

[NeeBick]

Looks really great.

My baby sister has been hounding me to build her a cabinet (she saw me looking at the mini ms pac man cab) since I started construction on my own.  I have been planning a mini-pac cab for her on the side for a month now and this thread has been great to watch.  Thank you for taking so many pictures.

P.S. you wouldn't be interested in printing up a second set of prints for me (for a fee of course  )